A Sunday Drive on a Saturday

I need to catch up on my blog posts. It's now 10:17 on Sunday night. I actually finished Friday's post this morning and now will try to get Saturday's done. We're heading to East Bali tomorrow where internet access might be a bit more problematic making it more urgent to get caught up. Thank goodness we didn't do much today, although we just got back from a late supper at a Mexican restaurant. It was highly recommended by a couple of guys from Seattle who are staying here. The food was, I think, as good as any I've ever had. Also, we had a long chat with the owner, a young man from a very poor background who learned Mexican cooking in the states and is very ambitious and competent. An amazing guy.

But, I digress. Back to Saturday.

On Saturday we went for a ride. The brother of one of the young men who works here picked us up at 10:00 a.m. and drove us around central Bali until 6:00 p.m. His story is like so many we hear i.e. sad. In his case his wife was bitten by a dog and thought nothing of it. Three months later she had rabies and, of course, died leaving him with three young children. On Saturday he had been away from his kids for 10 days, leaving them in the care of his sister back in the village. We were happy to be able to give him something to do that we could pay him for.

We went first to a silver working village. In Bali, various villages are known for various crafts: painting, woodworking, silver working, etc. So, we went to a silver working village. We learned all about how the silver is worked, how glue is made from the berries of a local tree, lots of details. Nancy, having taken a course in jewelry making a few months ago, found it all both fascinating and familiar.

While Nancy was looking at jewelry to buy

I entertained myself by taking photos of the son of one of the women who worked there. I love taking photos of these delightful children.

Next we went to a temple. We went, ultimately, to three on our drive. In all of them sarongs are mandatory, but are provided when you give your contribution, which is also mandatory. Here we are in our sarongs.

And here's a view of the entrance to the temple.

It was very large and impressive.

Next, we were off to a coffee plantation. This was similar to the one we visited on our eco-bike tour, but that was ok because Nancy wanted to do some buying she hadn't done the first time around. Everyone there was delightful.

Here's a picture of our driver, Mr. Big. That's what he asked us to call him.

Next it was time for lunch. Mr. Big took us up to a restaurant high in the mountains. It was a venue similar to the one where we had breakfast on our bike tour. This was, if anything, even more spectacular in that we sat on the edge of and looking our over the precipice.

I'm afraid the photo doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.

Then, off to two more temples. The first was still rather high on the mountain. It was very old and nearly deserted.

We were shown around by a man who introduced himself as the keeper of the temple.

He not only showed us around but took several photos of us. There are those sarongs again.

The final temple was close to Ubud, thank goodness. It was the most spectacular of all. Notice the huge tree.

Parts of it date back to the 11th century. Here I am washing my face in the holy fountain "for good luck" our guide told us.

Parts of the temple were destroyed in an earthquake, such as these temple ruins

and these pieces of an ancient stone Buddha, now lying in a stream.

There's even the elephant cave

where, according to our accommodating guide, monks used to meditate after having carved it out by hand.

This tree was fascinating

and the rice fields of the priests were beautiful.

By the time we got back we were hot and tired. We'd had a very full day.

And I've had a very full day today. It's now midnight, and Nancy is long ago asleep. I have to do these blog entries outdoors in the cafe where the internet connection is active, and I've been nibbled on by mosquitoes ever since I got here. All in the service of my art, I guess. And, although we've really had very good weather, all in all, it just started to rain, yet again. But it's warm!